Now then, if you turn to Ephesians
chapter 2, I'd like to read here verse 8, 9, and 10. Verse 8,
9, and 10, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. I want to speak primarily this
morning on verse 10 on the subject, the origin of a Christian. The origin of a Christian. Now the Apostle Paul speaks here
in chapter 2 in verse 1 that there are some among the Ephesians
that has been quickened from the dead. They have been quickened,
brought to life, They have experienced the life of God being given to
them in their souls. And he, a little later here,
says in verse four, but God who is rich in mercy for his great
love wherewith he loved us, telling us that God in mercy, through
his great love, even when they were dead, in verse five, hath
quickened them together with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
these people are living people. Now a Christian is somebody who
is alive. Alive in the Spirit. They're
alive from the death of sin and they're in Jesus Christ. Christ
is our living head. We're in Him and we live because
Christ lives and we have this spiritual life as a gift from
God. We're told that in verse 8, by
grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. God
has been pleased to reveal his gospel and faith has been given
in the gospel and that faith has embraced this gift of God
which is eternal life. Paul said in Romans 6 and 23,
for the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal
life. And so these individuals were
enabled to embrace this gift with God-given faith. And then,
in verse 9, he says, not of works. This did not come because of
your works, because of your obedience unto the law of Moses, unto your
response to some teacher, some legalistic teacher. This was
not the works of righteousness which you have done, but it's
according to his mercy that he saved us through the washing
of regeneration and that renewal that was brought about by the
Holy Spirit. And so then he comes to verse
10 and he said, for we are his workmanship. Now the text is
written by the Apostle Paul as a reason why salvation cannot
be a thing of human merit, not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship. The for indicates, the word for
here, indicates an argument. And it shows conclusive why salvation
cannot be by our works, because even when we have, as believers,
an abundance of good works, they are far more due to God than
they are unto us. Now, what Paul is saying is that
we ourselves, in our same condition, are the workmanship of God. Now, not of works. We are His
workmanship. We are so completely the Lord's
workmanship that we're called a creation. We are created in
Christ Jesus. Now, a creation cannot possibly
be the creature's own work. Such a supposition would be observed,
would it not? How can a man create himself?
Whatever, therefore, we are in Christ Jesus is the result of
God's work upon us. Get it. Whatever we are in the
Lord Jesus Christ, it is because of the result of God's work upon
us, and it cannot be the cause of our work. Moreover, according
to Paul, our good works, be they what they may be, are the outworking
of an ordinance of God. which God hath ordained that
we should walk in them. Now truly God's people maintain
good works. to the end that their father
which is in heaven would be glorified. But far at the back of this lies
the divine purpose by which they were settled from of old. God from of old predestinated
that his people would walk in good works. And we'll see it
more clearly as we see what the Lord has done in recreating us
in the Lord Jesus Christ and putting the new man Christ in
us which is the reason why we can walk in good works. Now,
if good works are ordained as well as the salvation of which
they are the evidence, then the whole matter is of divine ordaining,
and there's no place left to impute salvation to human work
or human merit. The tree is not created by its
fruit. For the fruit is created with
the tree, and is the purpose for which the tree was created. Good works are not the cause
of salvation, they are the result of it. and were contemplated
as a result by God when He saved us. God, when He saved us, knew
what the results of that salvation would be, and any good work that
is in our life is the result of the hand of God upon us in
regeneration, the hand of God upon us in conviction and in
conversion. Now notice, number one, then,
the origin of a Christian. Of all Christian men, whether
Jew or Gentile, of all Christian men, if they be the highest apostle
like Paul, or the least of all of the living family of God such
as I am, as many as are truly saved and brought into union
with Christ are indeed the workmanship of God. No Christian in the world
is a chance production of nature, or the outcome of evolution,
or the result of special circumstances. The Bible says, by the grace
of God, the Apostle Paul making this statement, and I'm sure
he had it clear, I'm sure that he understood wherever he was
speaking, he said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And this
may be said of every man. who is a believer, every man
who's saved can say, I am what I am by the grace of God. To nothing can we ascribe the
fact that we're in Christ except this, that we are God's workmanship. that God purposed in old time,
before eternity was ever began, that we would be in Jesus Christ
and that we would have his stamp upon us, the new nature of God,
the nature of Christ would be implanted in our souls. So we
are God's workmanship of regeneration of the new birth. We must say
once for all This is indeed the finger of the living God. Spiritual life cannot come to
us by development of nature. We hear a great deal in our day
about evolution and development. But if any one of us were to
be developed to our utmost apart from the grace of God, we would
come out worse than before the development began. Because you
see, we all fall down. None of us fall up. Nobody gets
better since the fall. And so my friend, it'll be no
accident if you become a Christian. It'll be because of the divine
purpose. It'll be because of the workmanship
of God. And if God leaves you to yourself,
that you might develop as it is, or that you might process
or that you might proceed in a state of evolution, I'll tell
you this. you will get worse instead of
better. George Whitfield stirred up a
fuss among the religionists of his day when he said that man
by nature was half beast and half devil. And he was right.
So if you are to be developed You would just become a brute,
and you'd become more devilish, more like your father, which
is the devil. He was right. Now spiritual life,
then, cannot come out of our unredeemed nature. It is impossible. Out of nothing comes what? Nothing! There is no spiritual life in
men, dead in trespasses and sins. How then can life come out of
them? Developed manhood, developed
apart from the grace of God, without any restraining influence,
must be a fermenting mass of hate, envy, malice, lust, cruelty,
and pride. You speak of evolution all you
want to. Here it is described in the Word
of God, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. That is the evolution
of natural man. He is not going to get saved
on his own. He's not going to get saved when
he wants to get saved. He's going to get saved when
God purposed it and when God planned it. Now darkness never
begets light, my friend. Filth never creates purity. And hell will never make a heaven.
And depravity never produces grace. Never produces grace. You leave a sinner to himself,
he'll always be a sinner damned. He'll be a sinner, headed for
a devil's hell, and until God works on him, there's no hope
for him. I'm here this morning to tell
you, those of you that are in sin, those of you that are lost,
those of you that are outside of Christ, never having been
affected by God's Spirit and the Word, I'm here to tell you
that salvation is indeed of God from the beginning to the end,
and God must deal with your heart. The point is that we must be
God's workmanship, and that's what Paul is saying here. And
from election to glorification, we must be His workmanship. It was the Lord who first taught
us our need of a Savior, and gave us our sense of sin, and
our first tremblings of soul, and our new desires, toward heaven
and toward God. It was of the Lord. The faintest
breath of spiritual life that was ever breathed by any one
of us, it came from God Himself. From God Himself. And we must
remain the Lord's workmanship to the very last. To the very
last. Now the picture must be finished
by the same master hand which first sketched it out. If any
other hand should lay so much as a brush on it, it would mar
it all. It doth not yet appear, John
said in 1 John 3 and 2. Beloved, he said, now are we
the sons of God? It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know when he shall appear we shall be like
him. shall see him as he is. And so if any other hand should
be laid upon this, it doesn't appear what we're going to be.
Since we do not even know what we're going to be, we cannot
intrude into the work and take the pencil from the hand of the
great artist and complete his design. But the author must be
the finisher of what he has begun. Amen? God must be the author
of what he begins. Now this is tremendous and it
ought to stir up our hearts to magnify the Lord the author and
the finisher of our faith. If it be so that from the first
the Lord has wrought all our works in us What amount of patience,
what amount of power, what amount of love and grace has God spent
on us? Think of it, if you will, the
power, the work of producing the image of Jesus Christ in
those who were born in sin. Think about the power that's
needed, the power that must work on a sinner in order to make
him into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the skill
which makes heirs of God out of heirs of wrath. Think about
the master, if you will, and get your eyes off your own little
works and think about the great God of the Bible and his skill
to take a sinner, a poor lost sinner, even the chief of sinners,
and make them into vessels of mercy, into vessels that will
be to the honor and glory and praise of his name for all eternity. Now it seemed impossible when
one said, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto
Abraham, but it is more than fulfilled in us. Think of it,
beloved. Think of it. Now God is able
to work miracles, and salvation is a miracle of grace. wrought
upon those who are chosen of Him from old time, and that number
is more numerous than the sand of the seashore, but our God
has the skill to make them all into that which would be honoring
and glorifying, that would be to the praise of the glory of
His grace. See how He has continued the
work in believers year after year. Now some of you are young
in the faith. Others of you are maybe middle-aged
in the faith. Others maybe are more mature
in the faith. But think of how God has continued
the work throughout the years. He begun the work and He is continuing,
continuing the work. He that hath begun, Mike mentioned
it in his prayer, the good work in us will perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1 and verse 6. Thank
God for what he's done. Why should he not have the glory?
We're his workmanship. And Paul didn't try to conceal
the matter. He didn't try in any way, shape,
or form to hide the matter from religious people. He come right
out and told them for we are his workmanship. created in Christ
Jesus. I know that the picture does
not look so complete this morning, maybe to some of us. Some of
us may feel well. I don't know whether all this
is true or not, but here let me say this, that God the artist
was never yet known to throw away a canvas upon which he at
once commenced a masterpiece. Now let me say that again. You
say, well, the work doesn't seem to be so complete in me. In other
words, you're talking, preacher, about the skill of the master
and talking about the power of God, able to convert a soul and
able to change a man and able to make him into a vessel that
would glorify the Lord, but the work doesn't seem to be so complete
in me. And I made this statement that
the master has never yet been known to throw away this master
artist, this one who's doing the working, this one who is
accomplishing the purpose. He's never yet been known to
throw away a canvas upon which he had once commenced a masterpiece. In other words, the Lord is completing
the work, whether it seems to you like he is or not. God is
completed work. Do not sigh so much over the
incomplete part. You will fail to rejoice over
what has been accomplished already. And let me say that the hardest
is over already. The hardest is accomplished already. Jesus has already come down from
heaven. The Lord Jesus has already went
to Calvary. The Lord Jesus has already been
made to be sin for us. The Lord Jesus has already suffered
our hell on the cross, and God has already accepted the sacrifice
that he made on our behalf. And Mike mentioned the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, and I'll tell you where it is significant in
that that when God raised him from the dead, it was proof that
God accepted everything that he had done in his life. in his
obedience and in his death as being complete for our salvation
and those preachers and I've heard them say that when our
Lord Jesus Christ hanging on that cruel cross and when he
said it is finished The cry went up, it is finished. And I've
heard these Arminian preachers, and it doesn't bother me to call
them so. They would stand and tell you
that what he's saying there is that he'd done everything he
could to save a sinner, and now it was up to man from there on
out. That it'd have a thing in the
world to do with that, that is a lie from hell. There is no
truth in it. When the Lord Jesus said, it
is finished, that's exactly what he meant. He meant it from God's
standpoint and he meant it from man's standpoint. He said it
is finished. Everything that is necessary
to take a worm of the dust, a wiggling maggot of the dust, and turn
him into a vessel that God Almighty would accept and that would be
able to live with him throughout eternity. And that God would
never be ashamed of him as he lived in his presence forever.
Let me tell you something, Jesus said, it's finished. I finished
the work. Did the work and I'm here this
morning to magnify the Lord and to tell you that the hardest
thing The hardest conceivable thing has already been done Jesus
has already done it and you can sit back and look and if you
want to just worry yourself to death and fret and because the
picture don't seem like it's being completed, you go ahead. But I think what we ought to
do is set that aside and rejoice in what already has been accomplished
and praise His name for having begun the good work in us and
rejoice in it and praise His name for it magnify His work. he that hath wrought us for this
same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of
the Spirit." Now, has God put His Holy Spirit in you? Are you
a recipient of God's Spirit? Has the Spirit of God come down
and baptized you into that one body of Christ? Have you been
brought to the place where The Spirit of God in your heart has
shown you God's love and made you rejoice in the love of God
for you. Listen, testifying to your heart
of God's love, how He loved you while you were yet a sinner,
when you were lost. He loved you and drew you out
of your sin unto Himself. My friend, don't ever be ashamed. of the work of God in you. Let your light shine, my friend. God has begun the good work in
your soul, and he's going to finish it. He's working on it.
He's the great artist and the great masterpiece, and he's given
us the guarantee in the giving. When the Holy Spirit comes into
a man, that is evidence that God owns that soul and that God's
never going to take his hands off of that soul. That soul belongs
to him and God is going to accomplish the work. So don't ever be ashamed.
Now let your light shine because a Christian comes out of God's
workshop. He comes out of God's workshop.
He don't come out of a workshop set up in the basement of a Baptist
church. He comes out of God's workshop,
and it's God's work, and we ought to magnify the Lord. Notice we
are His workmanship in the next place, created in Christ Jesus,
created in Christ. Our new life, as we mentioned
earlier, is a creation. This goes further than the former
expression workmanship. It goes further than that. Workmanship
is less than creation. Now God only can create. In this
world of grace, wherever we live, wherever we came from, and wherever
we are trying to serve the Lord, In this world of grace, we are
a new creation. Now, this is so important that
we see this. Our new life is as truly created
out of nothing as were the first heavens and the first earth. That which is of God within us,
a new birth, a divine principle, a living seed, a quickening spirit,
in fact, is a creation. Now creation is the calling of
something out of nothing, of light out of darkness, of life
out of death. It is this, and I think this
is a fair description of what happened when God saved us. Has
not this happened to us in the new birth? Has not God put something
in us He didn't take and half-sole us? Like a man would take a pair
of shoes that were wore out and put soles on them and half-sole
them? No, the Lord didn't do that.
He didn't take us and say, well, I'll just fix you up a little
bit. No, we were a new creation. God created Christ, the new man,
in us. And that's what changed you,
my brother, my sister. That's what made you different.
And if you're not different, it's because you've not had this
new creation in Christ Jesus. Now listen, when God created
the world, he effected it by word. God framed the world by
his word. He said, let there be light,
there was light. And that is an accurate description of our
entrance into spiritual life. Thy word hath quickened me, David
said. 2 Corinthians 4 and 6, for God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1 and 23, being born
again not of corruptible seed, but by incorruptible by the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. All flesh is grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of
the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Of his own will begat he us with
The Word of Truth, James 1 and 18, which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God, John 1, 13. Creation is the prerogative of
Jehovah God, and none can share it with Him. So it is in the
regeneration of the soul. Instrumentality appears. God
uses men to preach His Word. God uses men and women to publish
and to take out the Word of God and to share it with other souls. God uses instruments. But it is the work of the Spirit
of God. John 6 and 63 says, It is the
Spirit that quickeneth, that makes alive the flesh, profiteth
nothing the words, that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. How can a man become a Christian? Well, it's by being created,
and there is no other way. God must create you, make you,
in Christ Jesus, a Christian. Now, we cannot create ourselves. We must quit all of this pretense
of being creators. Now I'm trying to tell you, I'm
trying to be honest with you about what Paul means in Ephesians
2 and 10, for we're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus and two
good works. It is God who must create. Do
you feel this? It will force you upon the grace
of God if you will look at it. It'll force you upon the grace
of God. There is no way. I know you love your mama and
you love your daddy. I know that you don't have too
many ill feelings toward this preacher, but I'm going to tell
you, you can't be a Christian unless God recreates, unless
God creates a new man in you. And you cannot You say, I'm a
religious preacher. Well, you may be as religious
as all get out, but you're not a Christian unless God has created
the new man Christ and formed him in your soul. You must be
born again. Do you feel this? I said it will
force you upon the grace of God. It'll make you one who when you
wake up in the middle of the night despairing, knowing yourself
to be a sinner, knowing yourself to be lost, knowing that in and
of you there is nothing you can do to satisfy God or to please
Him, it'll force you upon the grace of God. It'll force you
to believe that God only can do in you what must be done in
order for you to be saved. And I'm here to tell you, parents,
when you pray for your children, oh, that you'd be forced upon
the grace of God to pray for your children and to pray for
them. Oh, I just wish that Johnny would
be a little bit better boy. I wish that Mikey would do this
and that and something else. No, no, no, my friend, your prayer
is God Create in Johnny, create in Mike, create in this one and
that one, create in them the new man Christ Jesus. There must
be a creation that takes place in Christ Jesus before one can
be a Christian. Well, granted that a Christian
is the result of a creation, then nothing, listen to me, is
wanted to begin with. Somebody said, I don't know whether
the material is there or not in Johnny or in Mikey or so on
and so forth. Well, then being that salvation
is a result of a creation, then nothing is wanted to begin with
and no help is required in the process. The Lord can work and
none can hinder Him. Salvation is God's work. It's
His business to do it. This truth lifts the whole matter
out of the creature's hand. This truth lifts the whole matter
out of the creature's merit, the creature's worth or ability,
and puts it all together on another footing, full of hope, full of
hope to man and of glory to God. It puts it in the hands of the
Lord. We were created in Christ Jesus.
It is more than I can explain. I cannot explain it all. I know that a man cannot even
explain what he's experienced many times. Many, many times
we experience things that we just don't have the ability to
explain. And so it is with this new birth.
But I know that it's a creation. The Word of God says it is. We
bore the image of the earthly when we came into this world.
And we shall bear the image of the heavenly. We shall. That
is, if we're God's elect. That is, if we're chosen in Him
in old time. That is, if God has set His love
and affection upon us. That is, if God destined the
death of Jesus to be my death to sin. I'm here to tell you
this morning that we shall bear the image of the heavenly. Glory
to God. Oh, how wonderful it is when
we look upon the fickleness of men and when we think of the
frailty of human flesh. How wonderful it is to know that
in heaven there is a God who is able to accomplish his work,
whatever. Whether a man says, Amen, or
whether a man says, I want no part of it. Whether a man's willing
or unwilling, it don't make any difference. God is on the throne. and God is doing His work. All right? Now, God saw you and
me and all the redeemed in Christ from all eternity. Now this is
a matter of faith to me. A matter of faith. I believe that God saw me in
Christ from all eternity and that we were in Christ when He
died, in Him when He rose, and you can't say that too much.
You can't say too much because there's coming a day when you're
going to face death. And death is real. And death
is, my friend, it's for eternity. You're going off into eternity. And whenever the hour comes when
you face death, The thing that will console your heart the most
is the fact that you were looked upon by God to be in His Son,
Jesus Christ, from eternity, and that you were in Him when
He died. you see God hung his son on a
cross and God exacted from him the payment of my debt to him
and God exacted from him the payment of my sin and for God
to look upon me and view me in Christ when he died paying the
debt of sin in him when he rose God raised him up from the dead. God raised him up and when he
raised him up from the dead, my friend, we were in him. We're
already seated together in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God looked upon me as being seated in heavenly places in Christ
before I was ever born. Before my mother was born, my
father was born, before Adam was ever put in the Garden of
Eden, God looked upon all of his people already seated together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This, my friend, is a
matter of faith. Who can separate the head from
the members? who can do that. The head cannot be separated
from the members. Christ is the head and all of
the members are members of his body and they cannot be separated. This, my friend, there's a mystic
unity between Christ and the twice born. Between those who have been born
in this world of a woman and then again born of the Spirit
of God, there's a mystic union between them. We are regarded
as one, listen to me, we are regarded as one in the thought
and the acts of God. Now this is what that term being
created in Christ Jesus, that's what it means. We're regarded
as one with the Lord Jesus in all God's acts. Now then, let
me hurriedly cover a little bit of ground here about the special
object of this creation, and that is unto good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. I want
to say a few things about that. Now, when Adam was created, the
Lord made him for his own glory. And this ever was and is and
must be the chief end of all of those that God recreates. Now, don't forget this. When
God recreates a man, when God puts His Spirit in a man, when
God saves a man, when God is pleased to join a man savingly
unto Himself and give him all that Christ is due, It is that
that man, that his life would be lived for his glory. That's the chief end of that
man. He put him in the garden, that is Adam, to dress it and
to keep it. Occupation, if you please. God
had something for him to do. And this idea that God saves
people and He never expects anything out of them is a bunch of rubbish.
There's no truth to it. God Almighty is not going to
go to all the trouble of putting His Son in you, creating and
recreating you, and doing for you all that the gospel spells
out that He does for sinners for no reason. occupation my
friend. God has something for you to
do and God only is the judge of what That is, in your particular
case, God only is the judge of what a good work is and what
it is not. When God saved us, it was not
that we might be comfortable and happy altogether. Somebody
said, well, I think it was just that I could be just happy, happy,
happy. No, no, my friend, you can read
the Word of God and you'll find that it's not so. Even the head
of the members was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Even
the head of the members cried out in the garden of Gethsemane,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, let it pass from
me, nevertheless not my will, thy will be done. I come into
the world not to do my own will, but thy will. Even the head of
the members was one acquainted with the grief and the sorrow
and the struggle of trying to live right in this world and
trying to do the will of the Father. And so any believer that
thinks he's just here to be comfortable and happy has got another thing
coming. God has something for us to do. Son, go to work today in my vineyard. This is the word of the Lord.
Son, go to work today in my vineyard. I got something for you to do. Well, what are good works? Well,
works of obedience. It can never be wrong, can it,
for a man to do what God tells him to do? Never. Works of love,
love to God and to God's people. We know we've passed from death
to life because we love the brethren. Works done out of love to God,
love to his people, love to the poor, love to lost sinners are
good works. Works of faith are good works.
Listen, works undertaken in confidence in God. Old Abraham left his
home place, went out to a place that God would show him, work
of confidence. Believe that God was with him,
that God had appeared to him. Believe that he was in the will
of God. Believe that God had something for him to accomplish,
and he did. And so he went out in confidence
toward God. Works such as these are good,
and that which is not of faith, the Bible says, is sin. The just
will live by faith over and over four times. In the word of God,
without faith it is impossible to please God, so we must walk
in them. The Christian's walk, my friend,
is very important. Note the remarkable preparation
made for this walk of the Christian in obedience, in faith, in love. Note the preparation which God
hath prepared that we should walk in them. That is the word.
The Lord has decreed everything, and he has as much decreed the
holy lives of his people as he has decreed their ultimate glorification
with him in heaven. He hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. The preparation is the new nature,
and a walk consistent with that nature. Say, how do I know whether
God wants me to be holy or not? Did He put in you His Holy Spirit? Did He put in you the new nature,
the nature of His own Son? Was Christ formed in you? Listen,
if you got that new principle, if you got that new person dwelling
in your heart, that determines that you are to be holy and that
you're to walk in holiness. If God has really and of a truth
met with you in a way of grace, worked upon you by a spirit and
new created you, then take it for certain that you are ordained
to be a prayerful, a godly, an upright, a sanctified man or
woman. That God has set you apart unto
himself and he owns you. He owns you. You belong to him. He puts his claim upon you as
a believer and you have no right to live your life saying I'll
do whatever I please. I'll go which way I want to go. I'll do as I determine. I'm the
master of my ship. No, my friend, if you're a Christian,
you're not. If you're a Christian, then you've
been bought with a price. And the end in view is that you
will glorify God, whose body and spirit It belongs to Him. The purpose is one and the same.
There is no ordination to salvation apart from ordination to sanctification,
being set apart for God and to God. You cannot separate the
two. And you cannot say, I want to
be a Christian. I want to miss hell. I don't
want to burn. Oh, I don't want to burn. What does it mean to burn? Oh,
my friend, the salt of fire is spoken of in the Word of God.
And you know what salt does to meat? It preserves it and keeps
it. And in hell, the fires of hell
will preserve the bodies of men to suffer endlessly on and on
and on for all eternity. The salt of fire. And I'll tell
you this, some people say, I don't want to burn, preacher, in hell.
I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to burn. I'll tell
you this, just remember this, when God saves you, if God ever
saves you, He'll save you to the end that you'll be sanctified.
And the same calling, the Bible says, is a holy calling. It's
a holy calling. It's to the end that you'll serve
and to the end that you'll lay down your life before Him. Lord,
use me. Lord, use me. Lord, just keep
your hand upon me. Lord, direct my steps. Lord,
show me. Lord, point me the way. I wait
on you. I wait on you. Lead me in the
way. So there's no salvation from
hell fire. And where a person can say, well,
now I'm free from hell. I don't ever have to worry about
going to hell. Now I can just go ahead and live as I please
and die and be saved forever. Not an ounce of truth in it.
not an ounce of truth in it. Every one of God's elect are
to be a spokesman for Him. in a generation in which they
live, every one of them. Life and voice is to be for the
glory of their God. And may God press that upon your
heart. Well, God has personally prepared
every Christian then for good works. You say I'm unfit for
God's service? Well, I say you're not in as
much as you are God's workmanship. I say you are fit for the work
The good works God would have you to walk in, He ordained,
He prepared for you. Believe it, my friend! Believe
it! He's prepared it, He's ordained
it. When God creates a bird to fly, what does it do? Well, I'll
tell you what it does. It flies. And when God saves
a man, He creates that man to walk in good works, and that
man will walk in good works. When the Lord God created you
in Christ Jesus, as you believe He did, and some of you would
testify that He did, He had prepared you for a position of service
and usefulness exactly fitted for your capacity. Romans 12
and 6 says, having then gifts differing according to the grace
that is given. Every one of us have the grace
of God given in one measure or another. None of us have exactly
the same measure of grace. But for everyone there's a gift,
and they can serve God with that gift. You can serve Him with
it. Practically that place for the
present, I believe, is the position in which you find yourself, in
which you now occupy. Ah, you say, Preacher, surely
not. Where I am now? You think I can serve God where
I am? Yes. But you say, but Preacher, you
don't know how poor I am? You don't know. But listen, there's
lost people all around you. You say, Preacher, you don't
know how inadequate I am. Preacher, you know I can't say
nothing in public. I don't have the ability to do
anything. Well, now where you are now,
The Lord, now we're talking about the Lord here, you're not talking
about me getting you ready to do anything, because I wouldn't
know which end to start on if I was to begin trying to get
you ready to do something for the Lord. And I don't talk a
whole lot about what I do for the Lord, I don't know whether
I've ever done anything for the Lord or not, but I've wanted
to, and I think that's where it begins, don't you? A desire
toward God. And I think when God saves somebody,
that's what they have, they have a desire to do something for
the glory of Almighty God. Well then, the Lord's gonna try
your graces. He'll try your graces. And you'll
say, maybe sometime, well, I started. You'll be better for it, God
tries your graces. You say, I tried, I tried to
pray in public and I just failed. Oh, who was you talking to? Was
you talking to God or was you talking to the people around
you? See, you gotta get it straight. We're serving the Lord. That's
what we're doing. We're serving the Lord. And this gift that God gives
you is to serve Him with. Forget about what other people
think about it. You're serving the Lord, don't
you see? You belong to Him. So the Lord will try your graces.
You'll be better for it. Contentment and patience will
come, even your sorrows. The Lord will bless them to your
heart. You say, I think I'm in the worst place in the world,
preacher. I live over here in this podunk town, and I don't
think there's anything I could ever do over there. I'm alone
most of the time. I'm like a plant out in the desert.
I'm really there isn't anything I can do. My friend, just submit
yourself, and just have a desire toward God. Lord, you know that
if I could, I would. And Lord, you know that if you
want to put me somewhere else, I'm willing to go. Lord, I'm
just yours. I am clay in the potter's hand. And you lead, you direct, you
show me, Lord, what you want me to do. You say, I think I'm
in the worst place in the world. A soldier, my friend, is trained
by the battle. Oh, there's never been a soldier
went through a battle come out of it unscathed that was not
better for having been in the battle. He's more skillful, learns
a lot of things. Don't quit now. Faith is required
here, my friend. Faith is required. All the way
through this sermon, faith is required. All the helps that
you need in your pilgrimage way already placed along the sacred
road. You know, you hear about people,
and I know the time's getting away, I don't have any guarantee
I'll ever be back here again next week. So you let me finish,
if you will. Let me say this. They were talking
about the police hunting some people down in Utah. And they
talked about how those fellows, they thought, had stashes made
out in that wilderness. Water and food. Stashes made
out in there where they could find them when they were fleeing
from the authorities. And what I'm saying is that all
the help you need, just think of it like this. All the help
you need on your pilgrim way to be what God wants you to be,
the Lord already has placed along the sacred road whatever help
you need. Already placed. That's what all
this is about. Ordained that you walk in them. Prepared a
walk for you. And God has everything out there
for you. And you just keep on going. All
events, whether terrible or joyous, shall be made to work together
for your highest good. Believe it! Believe it. Journeys,
all the journey. I think of it oftentimes about
the seasons and how January's snow, February's cold, March's
wind, April's shower, July's sun, all of this cooperates to
prepare the wheat for the bin. And God's people, the angels
are gonna come forth, Matthew 13, and gather together the wheat
and put it into His barn. It's gonna come. But all this,
it takes all that, don't it? January's snow, February's cold.
Anybody who knows anything about raising wheat knows all this
goes in to making that wheat ready for the bin. And all earthly
changes are sent of God to ripen us for the eternal future. Brother, sister, have heart.
except with joy, the way mapped out by God. Don't worry, trust. God knows best how you may serve
Him. God knows best. And He may put
you in a lowly place. He may exalt you right off the
bat. That may be a great test to you.
It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. Philippians 2 and 13. There's
a couple of scriptures that I'll read to you, and then we're done.
Now the God of peace. that brought again from the dead.
Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good
work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. That's Hebrews chapter
13, verse 20 and 21. Philippians 1, 10 and 11, that
you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere
and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. May the Lord bless the hearing
of his word this morning. Here's a little poem. I leave
it with you. His honor is engaged to save
the meanest of his sheep. All that His Heavenly Father
gave, His hands securely keeps. Nor death nor hell shall e'er
divide His darling from His breast. In the dear bosom of His love,
they must forever rest. May God bless. Let's pray. Father,
in the name of Him who is altogether lovely, we ask that You might
be pleased, O Lord, to own this message and make it a blessing
to this people. And Lord, may it ever be remembered
that we're His workmanship and that we're created in Christ
Jesus, forever looked upon from all eternity as being one with
Him, our Federal Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord from Heaven. Oh, Father, bless this congregation. May fruit come from this message.
And may every believer here, a father anew and afresh, bow
their knee, even this day, before this day is over, and submit
themselves anew and afresh to the God who's prepared a way
and a God who has a way for them. Bless them, Lord. Bless this
people and encourage them. Accomplish thy purpose in and
through all of our lives. We pray it for the Master's sake.
Amen.